I asked in a private message about some basic necessities; basically trying to see if I could support myself long enough to find work in Brazil.

Just thought I would post this to get other opinions, and to get the information out there since there's not much posted on this forum.

Thanks.

Hi Joey,

During the High season hostels are typically R$30-45 per night. the lower end will get you a non-airconditioned room with 12-16 dorm beds, depending on where you go. As you get higher up the schedule you get air-con, and the rooms get smaller, etc. I stayed in a hostel for around a month. Now that Carnaval is over and we head towards the low season, you might see prices drop by R$5 or so, but hostelworld.com will be able to tell you more than I can.

A studio apartment might cost around R$1200 per month to rent, but unless you're subletting this might be tricky to arrange. appartment sharing appears to be the norm here, I myself am currently looking for a new room to rent. Depending on where you look in town you can get rooms for R$600 per month (in the areas away from the beach), but I myself hope to realistically find something nice for R$700-800 per month. This is Rio prices of course, where location is everything, I couldnt say what its like in Sao Paulo.

Im not sure what your question is about transportation, but I use the buses to get around in Rio, much more often than I use the subway. There are loads of them, theyre frequent, they go everywhere and they run all night. The subway is also extremely efficient however. I know Sao Paulo is enormous, and their subway system is limited. Ive not been there myself, but I wouldnt have thought transport should be a deal-breaker.

I brought a cheap unlocked cell phone with me from the UK (material goods, and especially electronics, are expensive here). It was very easy to get a local SIM card. I do have an iphone, but that stays firmly in my apartment- I dont want to risk losing it, though perhaps im being overly paranoid. Using the Cell phone networks here is more expensive relatively speaking compared to back home.

Obviously its difficult to answer how quickly you can start supporting yourself, it very much depends on yourself as an individual, how industrious you are, where you are, when you arrive etc. Now that the country is going 'back to business' after carnaval work is definitely easier to find- my workload has almost doubled just in the last week. If youve not read it already, theres more about my own story in the 'Teachers in Rio - fancy a beer?' thread, which might help to give you context.

I know its easier to find work in Sao Paulo than in Rio, there are just more opportunities all round. As long as you dont sit on your backside, Id say you can get up and running within 1 month - (but dont quote me on that!). Check out the forums on gringoes.com its an ex-pat website for brasil, but predominantly covers Sao Paulo- there are sometimes teaching jobs advertised on there.

Hope that helps! If its ok with you Id like to post your questions and my answers in the forum. Its pretty quite on there and I think its good to share as much info as possible. I found it pretty frustrating sometimes when I was looking for answers!